The Shifting Sands

Madi Piller / Canada / 2018 / European Premiere / 9 min.

synopsis

Philosophical reflections on Israel blend into a personal struggle for identity: The filmmaker’s father came to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1946 as a Jewish refugee. The call for harmonic co-existence is imprinted in the falling grains from one image into another. Some of the scenes come from the documentary film Israel: Land of Destiny (1977, dir. Jacques Madvo).

"By constructing the film entirely with an optical printer, moving images and pictures are drawn to rhythm and meaning. The philosophical words of Martin Buber invokes the reflection upon the reality." M. Piller

biography

In an attempt at deconstructing the system of film, the abstract works of Madi Piller (1960) highlight the diversity of its stylistic tools. Her experiments with raw film material, which she repeatedly copies, completely manipulates, or semantically alters through hand-drawing, are framed as introspective strolls or memories of the past. Ji.hlava IDFF has screened her trilogy Untitled or Into the Light: Film Resistance (2016).